At first meeting the owner Mr Gauthier spent one hour telling me how they were the best service…read morecompany in Europe and how they are experts on Jet Props , also that as an FAA repair station very experienced at transfer to the N Register, after the DAR was there 3 times for their consultation I still had to hire a consultant to get all the paperwork organized
They started work on our PA 46 Jet Prop airplane in early Jan 2018 and at the end of January informed me that they have to stop work for 5 to 6 weeks as they have other aircraft to work on first ! Mr Matz the head engineer almost never returned my phone calls or e mails and when I called I always got the impression I was bothering them, several times they told me that they do not have time to answer my e mails and or questions
Prices for parts were CRAZY Quote to overhaul Governor and Prop Governor 14,000 EUR , I got a quote in the USA for 3,800 USD, price for 2 new batteries 6,000 EUR , I got a quote from Adams Aviation for 3,600 EUR including air freight from the USA
After delivery and them completing an annual + 100 inspection we found the following defects
1. Exhaust stacks on backwards = damaged cowling due to heat damage
2. Oil leaking due to high pressure oil line fitting loose
3. Lightning strip on tail missing
4. Front Tire ( NEW ) rubbing against trunion
5. Bushings on outboard flap bell cranks out of tolerance.
Among other unbelievable things that happened they charged me 85 EUR service fee to fill my tanks before the delivery flight
When I suggested that we would repair the cowling locally as I did not want to return to Porta and they should pay the costs they gave me only one option which was to come to Porta for them to evaluate the damage, when I insisted we do the repair locally they told their staff to stop communicating with me and threatened to get their lawyers involved which is a very unusual approach for a company that has installed your exhaust stacks in reverse and missed a loose fitting that could have caused a crash, I would have expected some apologies and them to do everything possible to accommodate us. We are now preparing official action against them to get compensation for the damage to the cowling.
To be fair they have one mechanic who is fantastic, his name is Lukas. he always returned my e mails and my telephone calls, unfortunately I got a direct contact to him only towards the end of the project when I think that Mr Matz did not want to deal with me any more
Worst experience of my 40 years involvement on aviation, I cannot imagine treating our clients this way and staying in business
Max Leser / Tools + Czech Republic
Jet Prop N415X